How we conquered Mitraspera
It started with the second most horrible night I've ever spent on a coach. And trust me, with my fear of flying and love for cheap travel I've had my fair share of nights in those things.
Don't get me wrong, I'm actually fairly fond of coaches, they're not terribly uncomfortable, but if you add several hour long breaks to a journey that's already meant to take 19-20 hours to begin with.. now, that just takes all the fun out of it.
The last of these breaks was at a reststop less than 11km away from our destination. I was ready to murder someone. I was also tired, because every bloody policeman on the whole freaking continent stopped our coach to check everyone's passports. However, I couldn't stay mad at those guys, they were really sweet. Especially the Dutch ("This card is only guilty in Belgium.") and the German ("Oh you're from Moers? That's not far from here!" - "Well, originally, anyway...") blokes.
When we finally arrived at Nienburg we then spent a couple hours waiting and angsting about whether we were at the right station... or, you know, the right city. This little adventure has taught us one thing, if nothing else: misscomunication kills.
We did somehow manage to get together with the others in the end.
Maybe I ought to mention that by the time we arrived at the Fields of Mitraspera (shush, I can call them what I like.) I was still a bit skeptical of the whole thing. I had never been to a LARP before, and wouldn't even have been all that interested if K hadn't asked me to come along. I don't know why, but for the most part High Fantasy is just not my cup of tea.
This lasted for about half a day, maybe.
When we got to our camp (Which looked fantastic by the way. Loads of props to those who arrived a day early to get it all ready. I need to post pictures at some point, I do.) we had a bit of time to get changed and to get used to our new environment. My outfit was... well, cheap and quite rubbish? Only marginally suitable? But thankfully the organisation "Pimp your Novice!" helped to gather some things I could borrow.
Y'know, I was kind of planning to write a day-to-day account, but I don't think that I'll be able to order my thought enough to tell what happened when. I'll try to summarise some stuff instead.
So, I was there as part of the Ordo Iovis who are - oddly enough - followers of the god Io. They're also collectively barking mad, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Seriously, on the last night we send a letter to our enemies, the Pestilence (!) basically telling them "Guys, you're making us sick. Stop it.". It was great fun, and I spent a lot of time trying and failing not to laugh. Not that we were complete clowns, mind you, but it was this nice mixture between serious play and the crackiest crack that ever... cracked, that turned out to be particularly appealing to me.
Also, everyone was so nice and awesome. I can't thank them enough for taking this painfully awkward newbie along for the ride. I may have been very quiet, especially in the beginning, but that was mostly because I was trying (too hard) not to screw up, as usually, but I really got into it later on when I was done being totally gobsmacked. Everyone functioned so well together, both in and out of character, and Oscar did a fantastic job of keeping all eighteen of us fed and happy.
Mythodea (Mitraspera, really) itself was really well done as well. I could have spend hours just walking around town, looking at all the people and at all the things the shops had to offer. It was so weird to see it all disappear in only a few hours on the last day. The night before we'd been in one of the pubs until it closed, which was really late/early, and when we got up the next day, bam! it was gone.
The journey home was a lot less stressful, tough I blame that on sleeping through most of it. And through most of the next day. It was fun, though, especially since K and I were busily talking about new ideas and possible character concepts, when we weren't dozing for a change.
Next year, I'll be back. With a vengeance. And in proper clothes.
Don't get me wrong, I'm actually fairly fond of coaches, they're not terribly uncomfortable, but if you add several hour long breaks to a journey that's already meant to take 19-20 hours to begin with.. now, that just takes all the fun out of it.
The last of these breaks was at a reststop less than 11km away from our destination. I was ready to murder someone. I was also tired, because every bloody policeman on the whole freaking continent stopped our coach to check everyone's passports. However, I couldn't stay mad at those guys, they were really sweet. Especially the Dutch ("This card is only guilty in Belgium.") and the German ("Oh you're from Moers? That's not far from here!" - "Well, originally, anyway...") blokes.
When we finally arrived at Nienburg we then spent a couple hours waiting and angsting about whether we were at the right station... or, you know, the right city. This little adventure has taught us one thing, if nothing else: misscomunication kills.
We did somehow manage to get together with the others in the end.
Maybe I ought to mention that by the time we arrived at the Fields of Mitraspera (shush, I can call them what I like.) I was still a bit skeptical of the whole thing. I had never been to a LARP before, and wouldn't even have been all that interested if K hadn't asked me to come along. I don't know why, but for the most part High Fantasy is just not my cup of tea.
This lasted for about half a day, maybe.
When we got to our camp (Which looked fantastic by the way. Loads of props to those who arrived a day early to get it all ready. I need to post pictures at some point, I do.) we had a bit of time to get changed and to get used to our new environment. My outfit was... well, cheap and quite rubbish? Only marginally suitable? But thankfully the organisation "Pimp your Novice!" helped to gather some things I could borrow.
Y'know, I was kind of planning to write a day-to-day account, but I don't think that I'll be able to order my thought enough to tell what happened when. I'll try to summarise some stuff instead.
So, I was there as part of the Ordo Iovis who are - oddly enough - followers of the god Io. They're also collectively barking mad, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Seriously, on the last night we send a letter to our enemies, the Pestilence (!) basically telling them "Guys, you're making us sick. Stop it.". It was great fun, and I spent a lot of time trying and failing not to laugh. Not that we were complete clowns, mind you, but it was this nice mixture between serious play and the crackiest crack that ever... cracked, that turned out to be particularly appealing to me.
Also, everyone was so nice and awesome. I can't thank them enough for taking this painfully awkward newbie along for the ride. I may have been very quiet, especially in the beginning, but that was mostly because I was trying (too hard) not to screw up, as usually, but I really got into it later on when I was done being totally gobsmacked. Everyone functioned so well together, both in and out of character, and Oscar did a fantastic job of keeping all eighteen of us fed and happy.
Mythodea (Mitraspera, really) itself was really well done as well. I could have spend hours just walking around town, looking at all the people and at all the things the shops had to offer. It was so weird to see it all disappear in only a few hours on the last day. The night before we'd been in one of the pubs until it closed, which was really late/early, and when we got up the next day, bam! it was gone.
The journey home was a lot less stressful, tough I blame that on sleeping through most of it. And through most of the next day. It was fun, though, especially since K and I were busily talking about new ideas and possible character concepts, when we weren't dozing for a change.
Next year, I'll be back. With a vengeance. And in proper clothes.